The Muse & the Marketplace 2016

This lecture takes on the practical challenge at the core of writing historical fiction: the seamless integration of fictive imagination and historical fact. Truth relies on historical research. However, the evidence of historical reality must be finely woven into the verities of any good novel—point of view, plot, character, setting, structure. The lecture includes (brief) deconstruction of exemplary historical fiction scenes (Russell Banks, Geraldine Brooks, Tracy Chevalier, Edwidge Danticat, E.L. Doctorow) focusing on specific craft elements.